It has become common practice to conserve energy by putting heat collectors on a roof or on walls of a building for collecting some of the heat needed for the building, for example the supply of hot water, or all of the heat needed on days when there is ample sunlight. The average building that is to rely on the sun for all of the heat required in the building has been expensive so that a substantial part of the economy of solar heating has been lost.
Instead of adding heat collectors and heat storage equipment to the existing structure of the building, this invention constructs the building in such a way that much of the physical wall structure of the building is itself a heat collector and preferably a part of a wall of the building that requires original structure that makes the wall both a heat collector and a wall of the building structure.
The preferred construction uses novel concrete blocks with structural changes that make the blocks heat collectors as well as structural elements of the building wall, preferably a south wall. Other features of the invention relate to use of the heat collecting wall as one side of a tank which holds sufficient water to provide heat for the building during times when there is insufficient sunlight.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.